Back to the future in France with hip auberges de jeunesse

Auberges de jeunesse are making a comeback, rejuvenating the old-fashioned and nostalgic image that French people have of youth hostels.

The trend is thanks to new companies such as Jost, Elko, Jo&Joe or The People, which have built new premises in the centre of many of France’s most populated cities.

Traditional hotel brands have also jumped on the bandwagon, often transforming single rooms into dormitories for financial gain.

Lastly, mairies and public organisations are looking to transition from one business to another, by renovating publicly owned buildings.

“I answer one to two calls a week about a building project from a private company, a private owner looking to turn a house into a youth hostel or an established youth hostel company looking to join our network,” said David Le Carré, the managing director of the Fédération Unie des Auberges de Jeunesse, the association representing 80 youth hostels in France.

He cited a former centre régional de jeunesse, turned youth hostel, which increased its turnover by 25% in a year, as one successful example of the trend.

The association has gained 26 new members since 2022 with Mr Le Carré hoping to reach 100 members by the end of 2026.

The reason also lies in a business U-turn in the industry, which had historically avoided an online presence on Booking.com or Airbnb, but has now been listed for 10 years.

The youth hostels of Jost, for instance, are a new-breed of auberges de jeunesse with rooftop bar, swimming pool, concert and exhibition hall and restaurants, breaking with the image that resembled 1970s France.

“I love the atmosphere. You can meet new people while keeping a certain standard of comfort," said Jean Thomas, a British woman in her 60s quoted by France 3.

Walking in the same steps is Demain c’est loin, a new youth hostel in Hendaye (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), which opened last April and offers some of the same facilities. “Guests will have one foot in France, another almost in Spain and their head between the Atlantic and the mountains,” the company says on its website. 

Four youth hostels have opened in the Pays Basque since 2022. Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the region with the most, 15, followed by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (14), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (11) and le Grand-Est (10). 

France has an estimated 350 to 400 youth hostels, with 80% occupation levels over the summer season, Mr Le Carré said.

The marketing, atmosphere and clientele of these new youth hostels resemble the boom in indoor climbing that The Connexion covered in April 2023 – indoor climbing itself resembling many other trends of the 2020s.

The architecture is minimalist, space is luminous and empty of any unnecessary accessories, while locations are five minutes’ walking distance from the town centre. Clients are millennials aged from 18 to their early 40s, university students and graduates.

Despite its name, auberge de jeunesse, there are more and more clients aged 40 and 50+ across the country, another growing segment of the market. Mr Le Carré said the association decided to keep the term auberge de jeunesse which, while sometimes intimidating to the older population, is reminiscent of the 1930s in France when holidays were conceived for the working-class.

“There’s this old imagery that carries over decades. It is a bit of a Madeleine de Proust [an emotional childhood memory],” said Mr Le Carré.

Newcomers, however, have decided otherwise and blurred the lines between terms such as hostel, youth hostel or hôtel-hybride.